"Well this is me." Seungwan opened the door, dropping the bags on the floor, while letting Joohyun into her room. Joohyun took in her surroundings thoroughly. "Uhh I guess you can look around first? And I'll go shower real quickly alright." Seungwan suggested, suddenly feeling vulnerable with the leader in her space. The latter merely nodded, eyes constantly scanning the room while Seungwan escaped to the bathroom. The room was bursting with Seungwan's personality. It had the girl's favourite band and movie posters hung up on its walls. Her beloved guitar was resting near the bed. On her study and bedside tables were various pictures of her family, friends and of course, the members. Joohyun let out an amused snicker as her fingers glided across Seungwan's book collection, realising that they were arranged in alphabetical order according to their title- a clear sign of her OCD. Even her stuffed toys were aligned neatly on the bed. Once she had fully oriented herself, Joohyun found her place on the bed, hands smoothing out the white sheets beneath. It was then that the thought of having to share a bed with Seungwan for the next few nights finally sank in, her heart automatically skipping a beat. I mean, it was not like she hasn't done it before - they used to sleep together all the time, long ago during their trainee and debut days. But things are just different now ya know. Now that Seungwan's touch made her feel all tingly and excited. She wondered how she was going to fall asleep with the latter that close to her. Unbeknownst to Joohyun, Seungwan was also thinking about the same thing, practically having a mini breakdown in the shower. 

 

By the time the two finally settled down it was already almost three in the morning. At first, they had both laid stiffly, strictly on their own sides of the bed. Like magnets, however, they eventually gravitated towards each other, Joohyun's arms finding its way around Seungwan's torso, her face nestled in the latter's neck. At first, the older girl's embrace had sent Seungwan's heart into a frenzy. Her heart was beating so loud that she was afraid that Joohyun could hear it. But soon, the latter's rhythmic breathing on her neck had turned calming.  And she found herself being lulled to sleep. 

 

"Seungwan?" Joohyun whispered unexpectedly, breaking the silence.

 

"Hmm" Seungwan hummed, on the verge of sleep.

 

"I don't think I can fall asleep. It's like afternoon in Korea." Joohyun whined, the different time zones making sleep difficult.

 

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Seungwan responded half heartedly, temporarily fighting off sleep. Afterall, she couldn't leave her guest wide awake while she alone fell asleep. But then again, she honestly could not find the energy to do anything else right now. Or so she had thought.

 

"This might sound crazy. But how about we try baking some cookies. And then maybe make breakfast for the rest?" Joohyun suggested, knowing very well that baking was Seungwan's favourite activity of all time. Besides making music, of course.

 

Immediately, Seungwan's eyes shot open, her mind suddenly wide awake. She looked down at Joohyun, only to be met with hopeful eyes and a cheeky grin in the dark. 

 

"Well, lucky for you, I like crazy; especially the kind of crazy that involves baking at 3.30 am" 

 

With that, the pair shot out of bed. They tiptoed down the stairs into the kitchen and began their baking adventure.

The pair went with the classic gingerbread cookies along with some chocolate and peanut butter cookies, just to spice things up a little. They split the work, each picking one to make, with Seungwan being in charge of the latter since they were her specialties, according to Joohyun. 

 

Once all the needed ingredients and equipment had been fully laid out on the kitchen counter, they commenced baking. One would have thought that with the silence, the pair would be focused on their individual task at hand. But in reality, the two were distracted, taking turns at stealing glances at one another. However, Joohyun was less sneaky. She did not notice that she had been staring for too long until she heard "Wah Bae Joohyun, this is the 2nd time I caught you staring! Am I just that irresistible?" Seungwan teased, referring to that time where they went winter wear shopping. 

 

Joohyun immediately averted her eyes, her face hot. But deciding not to make a fool out of herself this time, she blatantly lied, "Ew no. I just noticed you had flour on your face. You're so messy." 

 

"What where? But I have just started with the flour?"

"Here, dummy" Joohyun booped Seungwan's nose with her flour covered hands, before proceeding to wipe them across the latter's face, smothering her cheeks with flour.

Seungwan was stunned, but just for a moment. She retaliated quickly, splashing flour in Joohyun's way. But the latter was quicker, running away; the flour getting to only her hair and some of her face, but mostly ending up on the floor.

"Ohh Bae Joohyun!! You're in so much trouble!!" Seungwan shrieked, flour covered hands akimbo, ready to pounce. But every step she took forward saw Joohyun taking a step in the other way, making the latter hard to catch.

 

"You'll never catch me Wendy Son" Joohyun challenged smugly

 

And for a moment, they eyed one another in silence, anticipating, contemplating, waiting for the other to make the first move.

 

Deciding to break the standoff, Joohyun added more fuel to the fire by commenting nonchalantly "Oh and, by the way, I am cooking the pancakes later on. Remember that time where you burnt those pancakes so bad in Thailand? You're not that great of a cook afterall."

 

Joohyun knew the bait had worked when Seungwan clenched her teeth, her eyebrows furrowed. 

 

"Yahh!!! First you lie to me. Then you attack me. And now you insult me. You're so dead!!" Declaring war, Seungwan charged towards Joohyun. The latter squealed, scrambling away.

 

Soon, flour covered the tiles, their faces, their hair; basically flour went everywhere. Like five year olds, they ran in circles round the kitchen, shrieking and squealing, not bothering to be considerate to the sleeping members upstairs. 

 

Seungwan had almost caught up to Joohyun when the latter lost her footing, due to the slippery ground. Joohyun fell forward. But thank god for fast reflexes as Seungwan launched forward, grabbing onto Joohyun in time, spinning her into her chest, but herself falling backwards onto the ground, with Joohyun landing on top of her. 

 

Despite bearing most of the fall, Seungwan ran her hands along Joohyun's side, eyes inspecting the latter face, searching for any sides of injury before worriedly asking "Are you alright?"

 

Joohyun was overwhelmed with Seungwan's sudden infiltration of her personal space. She was acutely aware of how their bodies were pressed together, how she could feel Seungwan's breathing against her cheek; and if she just dropped her elbow and leaned forward ever so slightly, she would be met with the latter's soft lips. In a trance, all Joohyun could do was nod. 

 

"That's a relief." Seungwan responded before proudly continuing "Hah, in the end I did manage to catch you didn't I? Looks like I have won." 

 

She had expected a retort but all Seungwan was met with was silence at Joohyun's end. The realisation of their proximity immediately sank in as Seungwan met Joohyun's eyes.  The latter was looking at her in a different way. Was it longing? Lust? Maybe even love? Seungwan's breath hitched, her heartbeat thumping in her ears. She couldn't think straight with Joohyun so close to her. Was she hallucinating because it seemed like the latter was getting closer. Involuntarily closing her eyes, Seungwan anticipated the kiss.

 

"Wow wow what do we have here?" A voice popped their bubble, transporting them back to reality.

 

Both the girls looked up, only to be met with four pairs of playful eyes on them. 

 

Joohyun scrambled off Seungwan as the latter clumsily got onto her feet. Flustered, Seungwan stuttered "I-Is this a 5am party or something? What is everyone doing here?" 

 

"We all heard screaming from downstairs. And we thought something bad had happened. But it turned out to be only you two. So what were you two doing hmm" Mrs Shon question, eyebrow raised but a knowing smile on her face.

 

This time Joohyun spoke up "Sorry for the noise everyone but we were just making some cookies and breakfast for later on. Please go back to bed. We promise to not disturb."

 

"Nah, it's alright. We are up already anyways. So please continue what you guys were doing before we interrupted. We'll be waiting for food!!" Emma sing-songed, pushing everyone out of the kitchen. Both her and Seunghee wiggled their eyebrows at Seungwan, giving her a thumbs up while leaving. 

 

An awkward air fell over the two. They didn't talk about the almost-kiss earlier. Instead, they resumed their work in silence, like nothing had happened,  both too shy for any eye contact or conversation whatsoever. Everyone, we have here for ourselves, two cowards in love.